Case 2 – Student4 Table 14: Case 2 – Student

Student4 Parent4

Gender: Female Gender: Female

Age: 12 Age: 31-45

English Class:C' Educational Level: University graduate

Occupation: Civil Employee 3.2.2.1 ERAS and Pre-Interviews

Scoring a 28/40 in ERAS' recreational reading section, her feelings ranged between 'Happy' and 'Very Happy' when reading for fun at home, spending her free time reading books, at the prospect of beginning a new book and reading over summer vacation. Similarly, she felt ' Very Happy' about reading different types of books and visiting bookstores.

Student4 displayed an even higher score 33/40 in academic-related reading indicated by her feeling either 'Happy' or 'Very Happy' in practically all academic reading-related questions, such as feeling 'Very Happy' when the teacher questions her about material read, reading workbook pages and worksheets, reading at school, learning from school books and reading in class, both out loud and in silence. As such, it could be implied that Student4 shows a slight preference towards academic reading. Totaling 61/80, she

scored the highest of all three participating girls.

Student4, however, enjoys reading for fun, as she finds reading in both the L1 and L2 interesting and useful, while dedicating at least 1-2 hrs per week to reading for fun and reading about 3 books a month. She enjoys reading because it is interesting to her, for ''during reading you can learn many things'', echoed by Parent4, stating that it allows her ''to discover things to learn'', and because she generally likes gaining knowledge. Therefore, Student4 could be characterized as an above average EFL learner and avid reader, while her mother supported that '' she reads for both pleasure and fun and to learn, and generally likes reading even at school; her Teacher also adding she is ''really [a] really fast reader, fluent and is good at pronunciation''.

In a cross tabulation of Student4 and Parent4's responses, their opinion of whether or not it she is a good reader overlap; Parent4, justifying her belief on the fact that she reads and enjoys both pleasure and academic reading equally and engages in it whenever possible. Student4 further adding that she likes reading in either language, because '' I love books and they are very interesting and you can learn more things and with words you can imagine your own movie'’.

Regarding her attitude toward reading, according to her mother, Student4 reads with ''ease and willingness something she finds interesting, she doesn't have something hindering her from taking up a book or a fairy tale, extracurricular or school book and read it''; echoed by her Teacher for she finds her to be positive, confident, really fast and fluent. Her positive reading attitudes are further supported by Student4's statement that if a topic is of interest to her, she does not mind if the text is lengthy, difficult to read and/or contains difficult vocabulary, as well as her being the only participant that prefers reading over other activities in her free time, supported by her mother's response.

This positive attitude further translates to the fact that even though of the two languages she finds English to be ''a little bit'' more difficult for her to learn and read, she says: ''English sometimes is fun and can sometimes teach me new words I don't know''. Her Teacher also stated that ''very few students read books in English, yet some like reading English, such as

Student4...'', which supports her earlier statement. This positive inclination toward reading is additionally evident by her visiting bookstores and frequenting libraries more than once a week and enjoying selecting books on her own, while she likes reading at least one comic book per week. Of her liking and reading of comics, her mother claimed that does not mind her reading comics as they are ''another way of reading, to learn things, to sharpen her wit and mind, and it is a nice way to learn too''.

Her profile attests to her consistent presence and participation in the comic book discussions, during which Student4 showed interest, enthusiasm and understanding of both simple and complex matters. She also used advanced vocabulary, and gradually lengthened her responses during the study.

3.2.2.2 Discussion Groups

Student4 was a consistent, enthusiastic and meaningful contributor during all the Literature Circle Discussion Groups. Her level of English is displayed throughout. Indicative of her more positive reading attitudes were her initiations of conversations and introduction of points/topics. Additionally, she was a consistently quick reader, finishing first to fourth during all sessions.

From the very first session Student4 provided more than one-worded responses, even to more trivial questions, as whether or not students liked the comic, from as early on as the second lesson: ''Yeah! It was fun!'' to ''It was funny and interesting, because it was about an experience, I really liked it...I liked all the story and the characters and the battle''; to ''OK. From reading the comic I like it very much because I like very much Superman and...there we...it present as a Legion...and of the members of the Legion and how Superman goes in''.

Her growing liking of the comics and the process could be reflected in that she found some ‘‘Brilliant! It was brilliant!'', as she enjoyed reading about the particular characters, or her comment: '’ Ah! It was an excellent story, all the story I liked it very much...and also really how Superman, how Clark becomes Superman and fight between them''.

Student4's in-depth comprehension of the comics as well as her fluency and growing confidence in providing longer responses, especially in

comparison to some of her other classmates, could be displayed throughout the entire process. Indicative of her consistent behavior are such occurrences as: ''They...throw the robot in the water...and because the robot was mechanic and made by someone, if thrown in water it destroys it!'' and ''They managed to trick...and tell them to bring Green Lantern to turn off his ring of power so he tell them to not go to the air so in that way they didn't this and wouldn't have saved many lives''. Additionally, her enthusiasm and interest, along with her eagerness and willingness to respond and comprehension of the text and topic, are displayed by her raising two hands and responding: ''What was mysterious...The alien! Yeah. The alien appeared so suddenly! So we don't know...We don't know if they're friends or want to do say something problem''.

Oftentimes, she also returned to the text itself to base her response on: ''Ah! Sorry! It says here they make a mistake because they maybe haven't but the correct coordinates in the time bomb!'', where 'coordinate' was a new word, actually found within the comic text and used appropriately in context; and, in order to help other students solidify and complement their own responses, in a sense of peer tutoring of sorts: '' Student6: It says it somewhere, but I can't find it! '', and Student4 finds it and reads it verbatim. A peak in both her comprehension and use of complex, and possibly, new vocabulary and confidence in using such terms came with her answer:

Student4: Em...It was about an alien that appears to the superheroes satellite and this said to them that they home will...Εκραγεί;

Researcher: Explode.

Student4: Explode!...and that many people will die and the Legion goes to the scene to help the people to go out to other place and I think they will find a way to dispose the bomb.

Along with her good comprehension and oral skills, positive attitude and presence in the group, Student4 also showed strong inference and prediction skills, both important for understanding and appreciating the purpose of reading. To this end, some of her contributions were more extensive than others, such as the reason she believed the villains attack heroes: '' because it's a team and bad people want to kill them''. Other such

occurrences are: ''They will escape and they will fight all together!'', and when she justified how their predictions from the previous session had come to fruition upon reading the second half: ''Yes, because we thought that all together they'll open the prison and they did!''; while, upon debate with her fellow students she ultimately changed her original position and presented her prediction for the second half of the given story: ''I change to fight! Yeah! They will stop the bomb and they will save the people so they could not die and....the others would leave!''.

Her confidence as an EFL reader and learner, and willingness and interest in the topic and study overall could be further indicated by her persistence in finding the common moral code and lesson between the comics: ''Student4: Heroes? […] All three about...[...] //thinking// So they do have something in common...Hmmmm....It's about something that is not real!'', her response being interesting and insightful, as was her accompanying comment that the story's morale was to be kind to other people and the fact that she agreed that the characters of the comic were underestimated by their enemies ''because they took their powers and they believed that if they don't have powers...eeee...they cannot....eeemmm....face the others!''. Despite her slight hesitation, her answer was on point with the story.

Finally, an extra point of interest in accordance to her profile, as aforementioned, is her knowledge of more complex vocabulary ('dispose'; 'brilliant'), as well as synonyms and translations ( i.e., 'telekinisis – teleport'). 3.2.2.3 Post Questionnaires

All in all, Student4 seemed to rather enjoy the comic book readings and the discussion groups.

Her post-questionnaire showed that if she were to score her experience of comic book reading, she would rate it with a maximum of 5 points, adding that her reading attitudes have improved, ''because I sometimes read comics and now I am reading one in two weeks and I like comics now, I think that they are funny!''; while her reading habits have also improved, since : ''now, I want to read more comic books and I want to read more books in English.''; similarly supported by her mother, stating that

comic reading will make her child want to read more in English, and the comic reading process has contributed to increasing her enjoyment of reading, especially in English. Her Teacher also felt that Student4 was one of the four students that most enjoyed the overall process.

She also seemingly enjoyed the comic book borrowing library, as she borrowed 2 comics and graded it with a maximum of 5 points'' because I like the comics that it has and I think it is a library where we can learn many things, e.g., vocabulary''. She further felt the library has improved both her reading attitudes and reading habits, and if more comics were to be used in (English) class, she would enjoy reading more, while if a permanent comic library were to be set up she would most likely continue borrowing from it, as she now wants to read more (books) in English and enjoys reading in both her L1 and L2, more. Her mother, Parent4, also felt that the overall process was beneficial to her daughter's reading attitudes as she ''became more familiar with comics and the English language'', as well as her reading habits, for: '' she read more, and besides the comics being read in class, she also used the borrowing library''.

Therefore, Student4, was an indicative case of a participant who was mostly consistent throughout the overall study in terms of attitudes, and whom the use of comic book reading seemed to benefit in her growing confidence as a (L2) learner, reader and speaker, as demonstrated by her active engagement, willingness, enthusiasm, use of English and comprehension skills having gradually providing longer and more complex responses; as well as her active borrowing of comics from the library.

The following two cases present some gradual changes between their initial ERAS results and pre-interviews and their post-questionnaire responses, and those of their parents and teacher. Moreover, a gradual increase in their participation, interest, enthusiasm, comprehension and lengthening of responses in some questions was observed.

3.2.3 Case 3 – Student3